Ancient northern kauri tree forests to be protected

Whangarei – The giant northern kauri forests are to be protected, through the national pest management plan with the allocation of $32 million of government funding.

The financial backing to halt the damage to kauri by the deadly phytophthora agathidicida pathogen, known as dieback disease, will help toward restoration of the native forests.

The pathogen is like a biological bulldozer. It’s crucial for Aotearoa’s biodiversity and biosecurity efforts are made to protect kauri.

In Auckland, those involved in aerial and ground surveillance monitoring of the Waitakere Ranges have mapped healthy and infected kauri throughout the forest.

In Northland’s Puketī Forest, a pilot project will record how many kauri trees are in the area, determine the baseline distribution of the PA pathogen and map kauri health patterns across the forest.

 Mana whenua will lead on the ground surveillance to confirm the presence and location of the pathogen and disease across all kauri lands.

Capacity is being built among eight hapū across Northland, along with training to support the development of surveillance plans and subsequent ground surveillance work.

Aerial surveillance work has extended to the rest of Northland and Coromandel regions, with enough aerial imagery to start mapping kauri locations and health. Once the mapping is complete, wider ground surveillance across these regions will be initiated.

Protecting our precious Kauri and improving pest management is an important part of the Cooperation Agreement between Labour and the Green Party, so I am delighted by the progress made since the national pest management strategy came into effect.

Tackling the biodiversity crisis goes hand-in-hand with tackling the climate crisis. By protecting our forests, we can harness the power of nature to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

This work will go a long way towards achieving that goal, as will the forthcoming National Policy Statement on Indigenous Biodiversity,” said James Shaw.

The Puketī forest pilot project is the first tranche of aerial surveys which is complete. Aerial surveillance illustrates the kauri crown locations and indicates where stress may occur in the canopy.

Ground surveillance such as tree health assessments and soil samples are paired with aerial imagery to determine where the disease and pathogen is.

The project has seen Māori, government agencies such as Tiakina Kauri and Department of Conservation working together with Auckland Council, biosecurity training specialists, universities, and crown research institutes.